STEM
Chillenium Pits College-Level Game Developers Against One Another
Students from 12 universities
will gather on the Texas A&M University's
College Station, TX, campus the
weekend of Sept. 23 for the Chillenium, in which teams of
college students
compete to build the best gaming software.
When the teams from campuses
as disparate as Ohio State University, West Virginia University and
Baylor University gather at 5 p.m., Friday, Sept. 23, they will learn, for the
first
time, the theme of the competition. At that point, they will have until
5 p.m.,
Sunday, Sept. 25, to develop games with hardware they bring with them
to the
contest and software either available online or on their own computers.
Gaming industry professionals
from companies such as Unity, Houdini and Boss Fight Entertainment will
be on
hand to offer advice to the student teams.
On Sunday evening, a group of
gaming experts, sponsors and fans will play and rank the games in terms
of
innovation, quality and completeness. Awards, including licenses for
professional-grade gaming software, will go to the winning teams of up
to four
students each.
More than 200 visualization,
computer science and engineering majors are expected to compete for the
prizes
in what is considered the largest student-run game jam in North America.
"This year's event has
attracted more competitors and sponsors than ever before," said Texas
A&M
Visualization Experience Lab Founder and Professor Andre Thomas.
This is the third annual
Chillenium competition at Texas A&M, whose master of fine arts
in
visualization program was listed this year by the Princeton Review
among the
top 25 graduate game design programs in the United States.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.